ABSTRACT:
Background: The cost and economic burden of diabetes are a serious worldwide
issue. In this study, we evaluated medical payments for persons diagnosed
with diabetes and the factors that led to a person having diabetes to reduce
its prevalence. Methods: A dataset containing 113,979 medical checkups
and 3,671,783 monthly medical, dental, care-giving and pharmacy payment
records of one health insurance society was used. The dataset contains information
of normal and healthy persons. The sample period ran from April,
2013 to March, 2016. The medical payments for persons diagnosed with diabetes
were calculated. The regression analysis was used to remove the effects
of age and gender. The probit analysis was used to analyze the factors that led
to a person having diabetes. Results: In 2.9% of cases, the person undergoing
the checkup was diagnosed with diabetes, and the medical payments for these
patients were 2.7 times as much as the average medical payment per person.
This result did not change significantly even if age and gender were considered.
The results of the probit analysis suggested that body mass index, high
systolic blood pressure, low diastolic blood pressure, eating habits, physical
activities, smoking, drinking alcohol and sleeping were important factors for
diabetes. Conclusion: The diabetes might be a costlier disease than previously
thought in Japan. By the estimation, 8% of all medical payments were made
for these persons with diabetes, which is much higher than the result shown
by national survey data. However, overall prevalence could be recused by efforts
such as prevention of overweight and obesity.